I want to nuance each of the eight facets of Soft Rebellion, treating them as potent elixirs—antidotes to the pervasive numbness—urging us to remain deeply entrenched in the struggle, to feel every pulse, every tremor, and to resist the seductive call of apathy.

The air is thick with the static of inevitability. Headlines hum with chaos wielding fear as its consort. The architects of collapse weave a story enticing us to believe the ending has been written, their might is a current too strong to swim against, resistance is futile, hope a delusion, and that we are alone in a majority that is fully behind their falsity.

But soft rebellion understands that stories are spells, and the ones we speak aloud shape the landscapes we walk through. We must take care of what we let have tooth, and we must be vigilant in weaving stories of fearless connection and mycelial collaboration that move beyond borders and obstacles.

Because fear is a blade honed to sever our resolve. It narrows possibilities, collapses futures, lures the body into believing that surrender is the safest choice. But what if, instead, we refused the script entirely? What if, rather than parroting despair, we spoke in futures not yet stolen? What if, in the face of control, we became ungovernable in the oldest, wildest, most feral of ways by imagining, by weaving, by refusing to be reduced?

Soft rebellion does not deny the storm. It simply insists that we are not passive recipients of history. That even now, especially now, we are thick with potential, tangled in timelines that have not yet unraveled. To resist fear is to refuse to be small. It is to scatter seeds in the cracks of empire. It is to remember that no system, no coup, no monolith of power is as stable as it pretends to be. Beneath even the most rigid structure, roots are moving. Mycelium is spreading.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.

YOU MUST DO THE THING YOU THINK YOU CANNOT DO.
-Eleanor Roosevelt

Remember how to be mycelium.

Move unseen but never alone. Weave networks of sustenance beneath the surface. Speak in whispers that turn into revolutions. When the world above seems barren, mycelium does not despair, it grows underground, binding the soil, feeding what has been starved, waiting for the right moment to fruit. It is slow, deliberate, untraceable, and unstoppable. It does not ask for permission to return life to what has been hollowed out.

To be mycelial in community looks like this:
Within our communities we recognize and honor the living essence in all beings and elements around us. This animistic perspective acknowledges that humans, animals, plants, lands, and waters are all interconnected within a spiritual web.

In practice, this means attuning ourselves to the subtle communications of our surroundings and acting in harmony with them. It involves checking in on a neighbor whose darkened windows signal a need for connection, gathering in small circles to exchange ancestral skills like herbal medicine, off-grid communication, and legal protection, and creating communal spaces such as lending libraries or food pantries that serve as shared resources for all. These actions reflect the animistic belief in the interconnectedness of all life and the importance of maintaining balance and reciprocity within our communities.

By sharing knowledge in ways that are enduring and passing resources through untraceable networks, we mirror the myceliums ability to nourish and sustain life beneath the surface. This approach fosters a sense of mutual responsibility and reinforces the bonds that hold our communities together. In doing so, we become like roots weaving beneath the structures of power, quietly revitalizing what has been neglected and feeding the collective spirit that sustains us all.

What is one act of Soft Rebellion you can offer today, one seed of sustenance, one root of resistance, one network of care that will outlast you?